Berlin's Modern twist

Not sure you're a fan of architecture? Berlin's powerful new buildings will set you straight

by SOPHIE LORENZO  September 2008

I
know what you're thinking. Spend a day touring a city's modern architecture? Not
for you, thanks. Unless, of course, you are heading to Bilbao -- a city none of
us would have dreamed of visiting until a certain Frank Gehry plunked his tornado
of titanium, the Guggenheim Museum, along the river.

Let's
face it, it's surprisingly easy to be seduced by a building that has grand ambitions
and a pretty dress. And in a city like Berlin, the opportunities for seduction
are plentiful. For one thing, the German capital has become ground zero for cool:
its cultural scene is drawing the hottest young artists and designers from around
Europe and North America.

Add to that the past decade,
during which the city has taken on the biggest urban renewal project since Hausmann
overhauled Paris 100 years ago, and you've got some pretty good reasons to discover
the new face of Europe's sleeper capital.

The fall
of the Wall in 1989 opened up the city in more ways than one. Beyond the ideological
and economic divide that had grown during the Cold War, the 100-metre-wide no-man's-land
that separated East from West Berlin left a massive physical void. A who's who
of international architects was commissioned to build museums, consulates, office
towers, hotels and housing developments. The result is a concentration of recent
work by international designers found nowhere else, except maybe in a coffee-table
book.

High Points,
Dark SpotsPerhaps the city's most iconic building is the Reichstag(1 Platz der Republik, Berlin-Mitte; tel: 011-49-30-2273-2152). The historic
parliament building was the site of German reunification ceremonies on October
2, 1990 and has been reclaimed as a symbol of the city, but that's not what keeps
the tourists lining up. British architect Sir Norman Foster, the man behind London's
"Gherkin," was awarded architecture's Pulitzer, the Pritzker Prize, for his work
on the building.

The parliament's dome -- damaged during
a mysterious 1933 fire that sparked the suspension of civil liberties by the Nazis
-- was replaced by Foster's inspired glass-and-steel creation. Views from the
rooftop are lovely, but it's the futuristic dome itself that most visitors come
for. The large glass bubble hangs over a coiled walkway which spirals around and
around a mirrored column, right to the top of the dome. You will become mesmerized
by the multiplied images of swirling metal, and the sight of other visitors moving
along the passage.

While you're in the area, the discreetly
hidden renovation to the DZ Bank(3 Pariser Platz, Berlin-Mitte)
by the Toronto-born Gehry is not to be missed. Nothing on the bank's exterior
in front of the Brandenburg Gate gives away the Baroque sci-fi addition he's made
inside. The womb-like suspended meeting room and undulating-glass atrium are worth
a glimpse. Don't be shy; there'll be other tourists gawking inside the bank too.

Most
cities would be lucky to have one iconic modern building. In addition to the Reichstag,
Berlin has the Jewish Museum(9-14 Lindenstrasse, Berlin-Kreuzberg;
tel: 011-49-30-2599-3300; http://www.jmberlin.de),
which is arguably Berlin's answer to the Guggenheim Bilbao. This was the building
that launched the career of architect Daniel Liebeskind, now the designer behind
the Freedom Tower at the World Trade Center site in New York.

The
Jewish Museum was carefully designed to express the anxiety, disorientation and
fear of those who were herded into concentration camps. Outside, each jagged section
of this daunting steel-clad structure has slits cut into its metal skin to create
a few sparse windows. Inside, the photos, key belongings and personal correspondence
of Holocaust victims are displayed along two long tunnels with sloping floors
and tilting walls. The space itself creates a feeling of unease and disorientation.
By focussing on a minimal selection of artefacts, the unimaginable number of lives
lost becomes an intensely personal tragedy.

One of
the museum's most compelling elements is the Holocaust Tower, a narrow triangular
silo with walls reaching 24 metres high. A huge metal door clangs shut behind
small groups of visitors, locking them in for a few minutes. The only light in
this clammy concrete space is a glimmer from a slit at the top. The museum is
a perfect reminder that architecture can be powerful and can quite literally make
a statement.

The Memorial to the Murdered Jews of
Europe(1 Cora-Berliner-Strasse; Berlin; tel: 011-49-30-7407-2929; www.stiftung-denkmal.de )
takes a similarly unconventional approach to design. Composed of a field of grey
concrete blocks of varying heights, it covers a city block on what was once the
garden of Hitler's Reich Chancellery. The monument sparked controversy for not
addressing all victims of the Holocaust and for covering one of Berlin's choicest
locations in a brutal field of grey.

Admittedly
this is no memorial of doves and angels. Gazing across it, there isn't anything
to hold your gaze, not a statue, symbol or inscription in sight. If it seems a
little pointless or puzzling from a distance, the impact really kicks in once
you walk between the blocks. Visitors walking through seem weak and insignificant
against this huge, brutal expanse of grey. The memorial may not be pretty or comforting,
but it's definitely powerful.

An underground information
centre holds permanent exhibits which commemorate the lives lost, including the
Room of Names, where short biographies for over 700 victims of the Holocaust are
broadcast over loudspeakers. You'll also find a display explaining the ideas behind
the design of the memorial.

Shop
To ItNearby is the completely revamped Potsdamer Platz. This
was the centre of Berlin's nightlife during the city's Golden Years in the 1920s
and '30s. The once busy square was bombed to rubble during World War II and then
engulfed by the Wall's no-man's-land. Since several city blocks had to be rebuilt
from scratch, the area has now become a primer of current European architecture.

The
neighbourhood includes theatres, office towers, shopping centres and European-height
apartment blocks clustered around small squares. Italian architect Renzo Piano
designed the razor-sharp wedge known as the Debis Tower and the elegant golden-hued
stone buildings of the Daimler Chrysler complex, while German-born Helmut Jahn
designed the circus-tent-capped atrium at the Sony Center.

Take
the time to explore the side streets: that's where you'll get the best sense of
this neighbourhood and how the buildings play off one another. Then, for a surreal
view, take a walk down to the tree-lined canal by strolling past the new apartment
blocks on Linkstrasse. Each one was designed by a different architect -- it's
like a specially assembled collection of the biggest names from England, Japan,
Italy, Spain and Switzerland.

If you'd rather do your
architectural touring with an added incentive, hit the shops in the Jean Nouvel-designed
Galeries Lafayette(23 Französische Strasse, Berlin-Mitte; www.lafayette-berlin.de)
near the posh Gendarmenmarkt. You may spend more time looking through the racks
than the building, but you can console yourself with the thought that Nouvel (who
designed the high-tech take on Muslim architecture for Paris' Institut du Monde
Arabe) is France's most cutting-edge architect.

Nearby
in this high-fashion district is the cartoonish Quartier 206(67 Friedrichstrasse,
Berlin-Mitte). It is particularly worth a look in the evening, when the strategically
placed lighting seems to make the building disappear, reducing it to a series
of intersecting white lines.

Of course, Berlin isn't
just a clean slate for new architecture. No other European city can offer such
a palimpsest of 20th-century history -- from gracious Art Nouveau courtyards in
the Hackescher Hof to striking Art Deco offices along the Landwehr canal, to World
War II bullet holes in the walls of the Neoclassical buildings on Museum Island,
to remnants of the Wall or Soviet-era government buildings along Unter den Linden
boulevard.

So how to make sense of all this stone,
glass and concrete? It's probably best to get a little help from an expert. Ticket
B(tel: 011-49-30-617-5452; www.ticket-b.de)
offers a number of two-hour walking tours guided by architects. And the Berlin
Tourist Board(see City Tours under Sightseeing on www.berlin-tourist-information.de/ )
can point you to companies offering individual or group tours.

Alternately,
you can sit back and let it all glide past. Like many European capitals, Berlin
was built along a river, the Spree, which cuts a meandering path through the city
centre. It is possible to get around the city by boat on 197 kilometres of waterways.

Stern
und Kreisschiffahrt(tel: 011-49-30-536-3600; www.sternundkreis.de) offer various tours of the Spree River and the Landwehr Canal,
and you can hop on at number of key stops in the city centre. A canal cruise takes
you through the city's oldest neighbourhoods, past the 19th-century buildings
on Museum Island, the new development at Potsdamer Platz, the city zoo and countless
bohemian residential districts, some with funky condo buildings lining the water.

It's
a perfect way to see the sleepy country feel of many of the rapidly gentrifying
residential districts. Weeping willows drape over the grass-fringed shore, where
everyone from students to pensioners comes to read a book, have a picnic or just
loll in the sun.

Whichever way you decide to visit
the city, try to linger a little longer in the buildings you visit and look around.
You never know, you just might like it.

This article was accurate when it was published. Please confirm rates and details directly with the companies in question.

EVERYTHING OLD IS NEW AGAIN

Despite the hardships of life in the former German Democratic
Republic (GDR), many of its previous citizens miss the sense of community which
has been lost in the me-me-me world of consumption. Among the younger generation,
this has sparked a movement called Ostalgie (combining the terms for East and
nostalgia) which is part longing and part appreciation for the GDR's cool and
kitschy aesthetic.

The tourist board has even devised a self-guided Ostalgie
walking tour (see Berlin Ostalgie under BerlinPrograms at www.berlin-tourist-information.de/eng
lish/sightseeing/) that takes in the Soviet Secret Police museum, the
Socialist Realist architecture of Karl-Marx Allee and the pinnacle of Soviet kitsch:
the Fernsehturm(1a Panoramastrass,
Berlin-Mitte; www.berlinerfernsehturm.de),
the highest structure in the city. This 1960s TV tower has an observation platform
capped by a revolving restaurant which will give you great views of the city's
key landmarks.

By far the most retro-appropriate way to take in the city
is on a Trabi Safari(tel: 011-49-30-2759-2273;
www.trabi-safari.de).
The quirky and low-tech Trabant cars were a symbol of East Germany industry. The
candy-coloured clunkers boast a 27-horsepower (yes, you read right -- 27-horsepower)
two-stroke engine and an unusual gearshift. On the 90-minute tours, a convoy of
Trabis play follow the leader, while passengers listen to the tour guide over
the car's speakers. Circuits include a classic East-West city tour, and, of course,
a focus on Berlin's Wild East.

BEDTIME
FOR BERLIN

Directly across a leafy canal, the Grand
Hotel Esplanade(15 Lutzowufer, Berlin-Tiergarten; tel: 866-597-8341;
www.esplanade berlin.com ;
doubles from E99) has a 1920s modernist vibe with a boutique hotel twist,
at very affordable rates.

Right in the heart of the Old Town, the Westin
Grand(158-164 Friedrich strasse, Berlin-Mitte; tel: 011-49-30-20270;
www.starwoodhotels.com/westin/index.html ;
doubles from E129) puts the city's medieval and Imperial history just steps
from your door.

Designed by Pritzker Prize-winning architect, Rafael Moneo,
the sleek Grand Hyatt(2 Marlene-Dietrich-Platz,
Berlin-Kreuzberg; tel: 011-49-30-2553-1234; http://berlin.grand.hyatt.com ; doubles from E250) is high-end boutique style at its
best. Smack in the glittering new neighbourhood around Potsdamer Platz, its trendy
bar draws locals as well as hotel guests.

Lufthansa(tel: 800-563-5954; www.lufthansa-ca.com>)
flies daily from Toronto and Vancouver to Frankfurt and provides seasonal service
from Montreal to Munich, with connections on to Berlin.

For more information,
consult Berlin Tourism(www.berlin-tourist-information.de).